


Hanukkah 1962

by afrocurl



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Canon Jewish Character, Fix-It, Hanukkah, Inspired by a Movie, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Reconciliation, X-Men First Class Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 20:08:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2786066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik showed up on a Friday Night in December with a simple mission: win Charles back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanukkah 1962

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ikeracity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikeracity/gifts).



> Based off [this very old kmeme prompt](http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/7761.html?thread=14016593#t14016593) and as a one of the many stories I'm hoping to write for Hanukkah 2014.

Friday night - one again where Erik wasn’t at shul - but this felt far, far better than listening to people praying with him for a religion he had been questioning since 1944. But, he did know that there was another significance to this particular Friday night.

It was the first night of Hanukkah, or so Frost had told him before he left the safehouse. Not that he had celebrated the holiday in almost twenty years. But, if there was a time to think of finding his faith, it was now.

Not that Frost had anything to do with his decision. Well, not only Frost. This trip was the collective idea of the entire Brotherhood. Only because they were miserable watching him sulk around the space, thinking of all the what-ifs that clouded his mind as soon as he’d left the beach with most of them.

He’d abandoned Charles. He’d left the only man who had understood him. And for what reason? So far the new Brotherhood had been unable to find a way into Shaw’s myriad bank accounts - even with Frost’s help and Mystique’s skills - no one had let them into Shaw’s accounts.

Which meant they were without a clear plan of attack.

That had been more frustrating to Erik than anything else, but it didn’t help what he felt about Charles either.

So, to the Brotherhood’s plan, Erik was waiting at the yard near Charles’ windows and he had plans to float up to them and show Charles how sorry he was. With large cards that Mystique and Tempest had written up before Azazel dropped him off.

(Of course he had approved what they wrote. He wasn’t about to be an idiot twice over.)

He stood just out of what Charles’ sightline might be, and waited until it seemed that Charles’ lights turned up. At least now, Erik knew Charles would see his message. Carefully floating up, and still holding his cards, Erik stopped just when he knew he’d be impossible for Charles to miss.

The windows opened with a quick pull of one of Erik’s hands, and he let the force help to show off his new outfit: the helmet still atop his head, a red cape at his neck and a maroon jacket to match.

“Oi!” Charles yelled from inside the room before Erik watched a seated Charles roll towards him. “I’m not even drunk and this can’t be happening.”

“It’s happening and if you’ll allow me, I have something to say.”

“Like you did at the beach? No thank you.” There was an edge to Charles’ voice that was harder than Erik had ever heard, though he supposed he understood where it came from. Charles was in a sleek wheelchair and how and why that happened, Erik knew full well.

“I promise this is different.” With that, he let the first card drop to the ground and let the message play out.

_At this time of year, you find and share joy. I may not have done that earlier, but if the holidays are meant for anything, then it is to share the truth. So, I’m sorry. For leaving you. For hurting you. For not trusting you. For not trusting myself. I’ve been miserable without you at my side. Will you welcome me back?_

Cards littered the floor under his feet, but Erik watched and waited for Charles’ reaction. There was still nothing before Charles pushed himself closer to the window and yelled, “You’re a fuckin’ tosser. But as it’s Christmas - and Hanukkah - come in.”

Erik came into the room and looked around at the changes that had been made in a month. There were new apparatuses around that looked as if they are there to help Charles maneuver through some daily routines.

“You know it’s Hanukkah,” Erik started, still looking around the room at the changes. It seemed like too many changes for a month, but then Erik remembered that they had both been through far too many changes.

“I have a calendar and am not uninformed.” There was a clear scoff from Charles, and Erik thought he might know why.

“Was there something more than your display?”

“Yes, there was. I meant everything I said. I mean it.”

“I’d be able to confirm that if you took off that ugly helmet. That’s my one condition for me accepting this apology: if it’s you. Not the you that will lead the Brotherhood, but the man I met in the ocean.”

Erik hadn’t expected Charles to be so receptive to what had been written, and he certainly hadn’t been expecting for Charles to have a demand of his own, but it all made sense. He paced around the door, mulling over what Charles had said and what it meant for them.

Charles had lost far too much, Erik realized. Just as he had lost so much in the war. Or all that he had cared about.

They weren’t so dissimilar after all. Erik had never thought of that until this moment: until now Charles was - is - the beacon of optimism and hope in the world, unyielding positive and looking to bring people like them together.

Erik moved to sit on the bed and carefully pulled off the helmet. He hated the idea of what his hair might look like, even more than he hated the idea of Charles having found himself alone until now.

_I’m sorry,_ Erik said, hoping that his emotions at what he had just pieced together conveyed what he had missed and what he had not understood until now. It was rather like him, he mused, to be as shortsighted as he was.

_You haven’t had the same practice as I have._ Charles’ mental voice leached some emotion with it - a confused sort of awe at Erik’s willingness to be so open again and a pride that he still had power over Erik like this. He still sat near the window, but slowly moved towards the bed and Erik.

_You once told me I wasn’t alone. I found I forgot that once Shaw was killed._

_And you’re not in the business of being like him?_

_Frost says I don’t have the head for his strategy and we’re floundering without access to his funds. It’s nearly a lost cause._ It was a shock to be that open with Charles after only a few minutes together again, but if Charles did know everything about him, Charles knew Erik to be blunt and honest.

_Then if everyone can work away from his goals, they’re all welcome here. Our kind will always be welcome here._

_But it is not a requirement I tell them this now?_

Charles shook his head from his wheelchair and started to lever himself up onto the bed. _We have plenty of other details to take care of before they arrive._

Erik watched - as if in slow motion - as Charles inched himself closer and closer to Erik before he could only look at Charles’ nose as Charles kissed him.

It was slow and soft, unlike so many of their kisses before, but it was no less perfect.

This kiss was the promise of everything that Hanukkah had been to his people so many years before.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is that Love Actually "To Me Your Are Perfect" fic. It's only taken nearly three and quarter years for me to write.
> 
> Thanks to **Di** and **Kage** for the beta.


End file.
